Transom saver

Roygbivrj

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Jun 16, 2017
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I have an older motor with manual tilt. I am wondering what I can't do to tilt it up while putting in and out of water. I hit pillars in the water at a landing, and cracked my lower gear case. Replaced but don't want it to happen again in the future.

Is there some kind of transom saver that can be connected in the water before trailered. Or what do people do that have the same problem as I.
 

jbcurt00

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What old motor?

Several of mine have a tilt lock that allows me to tip it up, launch the boat then release the lock and lower it for use. Not sufficient to tow w it locked up that way, but for a quick back into the water and launch, yep, plenty....
 

Roygbivrj

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What old motor?

Several of mine have a tilt lock that allows me to tip it up, launch the boat then release the lock and lower it for use. Not sufficient to tow w it locked up that way, but for a quick back into the water and launch, yep, plenty....

Yeah it has a few holes where your able to lock it down. And it's not to much of a difference at the highest where I have the lock pin located.
 

jbcurt00

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Those are the trim holes, not what I was referring to.

What motor?
 

Silvertip

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That's not what those holes are for. The pin sets the "trim" setting for the engine. Look at your engine carefully where it pivots up and down. There should be a "Tilt Lock" device that allows you to lift the engine up and flip that lock into place.
 

briangcc

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From what I can see you have a similar tilt mechanism to the '56 Evinrude Big Twin 30hp I grew up with. It didn't have a tilt lock either. I'm going to preface the next few remarks with the following....this was my parents first boat, no prior boat ownership, purchased in '86 before the advent of transom savers, and survived well into 2000's with no major repairs.

What we did was tilt the motor up and stuff a small 1x between the motor and the mounting plate. The weight of the motor was gently lowered back onto the wood basically locking it in the tilted position. Later on we added a small piece of twine around the wood block to keep it from falling out. And we trailered it this way on several 8 hour trips into Canada. Boat was no worse for the wear over the course of our ownership - wood rotted out before anything broke. Even in the boat's rotted state it made its way 4 hour to 1000 Islands without a problem.

So for temp retrieval until you can install the transom saver I would think you could get away with a wood block to prop the motor up as well.
 

Roygbivrj

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From what I can see you have a similar tilt mechanism to the '56 Evinrude Big Twin 30hp I grew up with. It didn't have a tilt lock either. I'm going to preface the next few remarks with the following....this was my parents first boat, no prior boat ownership, purchased in '86 before the advent of transom savers, and survived well into 2000's with no major repairs.

What we did was tilt the motor up and stuff a small 1x between the motor and the mounting plate. The weight of the motor was gently lowered back onto the wood basically locking it in the tilted position. Later on we added a small piece of twine around the wood block to keep it from falling out. And we trailered it this way on several 8 hour trips into Canada. Boat was no worse for the wear over the course of our ownership - wood rotted out before anything broke. Even in the boat's rotted state it made its way 4 hour to 1000 Islands without a problem.

So for temp retrieval until you can install the transom saver I would think you could get away with a wood block to prop the motor up as well.

Thanks for the idea. Was thinking a 2x4 last night, and notch out an area for the stem of the motor and but it up like you said to the transom.this will be just to take in and out.

Thanks for the idea.
 

H20Rat

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That's not what those holes are for. The pin sets the "trim" setting for the engine. Look at your engine carefully where it pivots up and down. There should be a "Tilt Lock" device that allows you to lift the engine up and flip that lock into place.

Not always... Force (and possibly merc) had a bent metal thingy that would go into the trim limit holes to serve as a tilt lock. Looked like this.
 

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jimmbo

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May 24, 2004
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The engine is held in the up position strictly by the friction of the stern brackets against the swivel bracket. You can tighten the nut on the bolt that motor pivots when tilting. Just make sure to loosen one of the clamp screws before tightening the tilt nut, and to retighten before using the engine.
 

EVENING OUT

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Jun 21, 2017
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They also make just a universal "transom saver" that hooks to your trailer and holds your outboard up, you might have to get in the water though if you are trying to put on while still on the ramp in the water.
 
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